Burning Exalts
Burning up an exalt is mostly the same as burning any other Mannish character in the Burning Wheel (BWG pg 163). The biggest difference is that at some point you take the lifepath that exalts you. For Dragon-Bloods this is usually around the 2nd to 4th LP mark, since their exaltation is hereditary. For everyone else, it can happen at any time in their life, but the exaltation classically chooses people in the prime of their life. From there, the exalts ages differently, and their whole being is fundamentally changed, but all of the lifepaths they take after exaltation are still largely Mannish. i. Character Concept Exalts are the main movers-and-shakers in the world of Creation. Let your concept reflect that. You may wish to be a renegade Solar king, with a devoted cult and a thirst for more power; a Sidereal auditor, bored with the daily rigor and stupor of Heaven’s bureaucracy, looking for change of scenery; a Dragon-Blooded satrap for the Realm who wants to push the locals for all the resources she can get; or a rogue Lunar in some southern mining town, doppleganging as a local investor with the secret intent to later sell the town over to the Silver Pact for a tidy profit. The possibilities are practically endless, especially with Creation so large. Choosing an appropriate setting and situation with your gaming group is very important, so that you can all mesh well. It is not recommended that you play as a mortal in a group of exalts, unless you want to play out your exaltation in-game. Exalted has a pretty well defined setting at this point. There’s a wealth of lore and inspirational material across the three editions. Don’t feel too tied down by the established history though. My general advice is to pick a spot on the map that you like the look of, read up on the lore of the main terrestrial direction that it’s located in, and try to read about the lore of the three nearest canonical cities. Then carve out that spot with your players, for yourselves. Start small, but think big! ii. Lifepaths Exaltation is it’s own lifepath. Any other lifepath in the game can instantaneously lead to exaltation. But exaltation can only happen to a character once. Ever. So choose wisely. The lore of exalted implies that power scales logarithmically with age, but to balance this with BW's lifepaths system you will see that an exalt's power will instead stem from the number of lifepaths they've taken. This means that the difference between a 6 LP character who took exaltation as their second or third lifepath and a 6 LP character who took exaltation last lifepath can be quite stark. GM’s should impose restrictions on the timing of the character’s exaltation if they feel it is necessary. Lifepaths in Creation The default lifepaths of Burning Wheel mesh pretty well with Creation, and in most places in only a few minor changes will be needed, if any. A simple name change to a title can go a long way towards altering the feel of an otherwise identical profession. If that isn’t good enough, consider swapping out one or two skills, or the required trait. Try not to fiddle with the other parts of the lifepath; and certainly don’t fiddle with every lifepath. If all else fails, create an entirely new lifepath (using the Lifepath Burner, if you have it). Additionally, you may turn to other supplemental materials, like the lifepaths of other stocks, or the Tribal Barbarian lifepthas (especially if your game is set in the North or somewhere on the Bordermarches). I’ve described the Lifepaths of the Realm with some simple adjustments and additions to the standard Mannish lifepaths. The realm is probably one of the more complex regions of Creation, so with a little care and attention you could do the same thing for any of the other major locations. Setting Locations Every major location in Creation should technically be treated as it's own setting (even if the contents of those settings are largely the same between locations). For the purpose of rolling Circles in-game, you gain a +1 Ob if you’re looking for someone in a land or culture that’s very similar to your original lifepath, or +2 Ob if it’s similar but otherwise completely foreign. Therefore, when appropriate, mark the location of each lifepath when you add them to your worksheet. You may well have been born a villager, but that was in the Deep South... You’re in the Scavenger Lands now, and you don’t know nobody! The main Setting Locations are: The Blessed Isle (Centre), North, Far North, North-East, East, The Scavenger Lands (River Provinces), Far East, South-East, South, Far South, South-West, West, Far West, North-West, The Underworld, Heaven (Yu-Shan), Hell (Malfeas), and The Wyld. Note: Mortals are not normally permitted in Heaven, and any mortals that end up in Hell, the Underworld, or the Deep Wyld are almost certainly going to end up as slaves there. Travel Takes Time You may take a one year lead to stay within your current setting but move physical location, or two years if the location is more than half-way across Creation. Hence, if you change setting and location at the same time it takes 2-3 years. iii. Age Mark the age you were when you exalted, and use the standard Mannish age table up until that point. After exalting your Mannish age stops increasing and you get some additional bonuses based on the number of lifepaths taken since exaltion: Additionally, in the exalted lifepaths section, you will see that all exalts add their Exalted Age (that is, the number of years they've been an exalt) as bonus resource points. Getting Old As you can see, the table goes up to a maximum of 15 lifepaths (after-which you stop gaining benefits), but getting to this point is unlikely, and will sort of break the game. The usual guidelines for setting an LP limit should be applied (BWG pg 82). Killing Time Most exalts die in battle long before they reach any sort of “old age”. And using the standard mannish lifepaths means that you can't really make old exalts. Therefore, if you want to be an elder exalt, I offer three lifepaths (in the Outcaste setting) to kill time with: Notes: To take one of these lifepaths requires a trait that grants some form of immortality, and permission from the GM and all other players. Also note that the resource points is negative to counteract the fact that exalted age is added as rps. In other words, after calculating the difference, the three lifepaths above grant 50, 100 and 200 rps respectively. Looking Old Since exalts are practically ageless, you can also choose your ‘apparent age’. A quick-and-dirty ruling could be that 'Apparent Age' is the age you were when you exalted plus 1 for every 10 years of age since exaltation, or plus one for each lifepath since exaltation. This is mostly cosmetic though, so it can be any number you like really. iv-v. Stats & Skills Mark your total starting mental and physical stat pools from the mannish age table (on BWG pg 197), and mark your bonus lifepath skill points, resource points, and starting Essence exponent from the above age table if you exalted. Then add up your total lifepath skill points, general skill points, rps, and trait points and spend accordingly, as per the usual rules. Mortal stats are all capped at 6. Maximum stat caps for exalts are determined by their type: For Lunars it’s 9; for Solars and Sidereals it’s 8, and for Terrestrials and Spirit-bloods it’s 7. The absolute maximum skill exponent is still 10, but it’s recommended to impose a soft cap of 6 to 8 during character burning. This soft cap should also be imposed on Essence and other emotional attributes. Shades Shade-shifting stats during character burning should still be discouraged (unless you’re playing with many many LPs), but shade-shifting other attributes or skills by spending the usual 5 points should be no problem—especially since exalts get bonus skill points from their age. * On the topic of shades, don’t let the names fool you. You may be thinking, “But I’m an exalt! I’m pretty sure I’m heroic, and I’m damn well sure I’m supernatural.” These things are thematically true, but that doesn’t mean you can just whiteout all your stats for free! Consider the following synonymous names and associations for the three shades to help you (GMs and Players) to think about the power levels at play in the context of Exalted lore: Black The First Circle, Humans, Young Exalts, Spirit-bloods, Terrestrial Gods (Minor Deities), Mutants, Jade Born, Dragon Kings, Fair Folk, Minor Elementals, Walking Dead, Minor Ghosts, Creation, Shadowlands, The Bordermarches Grey The Second Circle, Old Exalts, Celestial Gods (Deities), Raksha, Major Elementals (Censors), Major Ghosts, Behemoths, The Underworld, Yu-Shan (Heaven), Malfeas (Hell), The Middlemarches White The Third Circle, Ancient Exalts, The Incarnate and Primordial Gods (Chief Deities), The Elemental Dragons (The Poles of Creation), Yozis, Neverborn, Hannya, The Labyrinth, The Void, Elsewhere, The Sea of Chaos (Deep Wyld), Lethé, And Beyond *This departs slightly from the traditional Exalted power-split to emphasise that in Burning Wheel, the exalts (yes, even the Solars!) are actually much closer to mortals than they might be willing to admit; and that the Incarnae (the patron gods of the sun, the moon, and the planets) are a lot closer to their creators than perhaps even they had expected. vi-vii. Traits & Attributes Each exalt-type gives you some traits that are common to all exalts of that type, and your caste or aspect choice may give you even more. At this point you should also mark your caste passives and channeling powers too. Your exalt-type and caste may also give other attribute or stat benefits, note these down too. Bonus Health and Steel for an exalt’s “mystical/ immortal nature” are accounted for by the various ‘Chosen by the…’ traits. Cultural Traits Exaltation can be such a dramatic change for a person that factors which would ordinarily characterise them are often overlooked. Solars and Lunars only get to keep one of their original three mannish cultural traits; Sidereals and Terrestrials keep two, and; Exigents and Spirit-bloods keep all three. Essence Questions If you are Exalted or a Spirit-Blood then your base Essence exponent is determined the Age Table above, but this is further modified by your honest answers to the following four questions: * +1 Essence if your character grew up amongst other essence wielders (exalts, spirits, etc.) or was surrounded by tales of their deeds and exploits * +1 Essence if your character has ever permanently destroyed another essence or gossamer Wielder * −1 Essence if your character was in denial or afraid of their new-found powers * −1 Essence if your character has ever been enslaved or imprisoned since becoming an essence wielder Minimum Essence at character creation is B1. The shade of Essence is determined by age only (from your choice in the age table) (i.e. 5 points may not be spent to shade shift). There may be other Essence modifiers too, such as from traits, so keep an eye out. * If your character was ‘Faithful’ prior to becoming an essence wielder, then Essence replaces Faith. Don’t answer any of the faith questions, but add 1 to the starting Essence exponent. (If their Faith was grey-shaded then add another 1 to Essence.) The Essence Cap A character’s maximum Essence is 10. However, unless you are a god-blood, nothing special happens at Essence 10. You won’t lose control of your character, and they don’t die or anything. There are other emotional attributes unique to each exalt-type that will make you unplayable though! There is also the ‘Witness Me!’ mechanic for major miracles that becomes available when you reach Essence 10. viii. Spending Resource Points A lot of things that the original Exalted rules call “Backgrounds” have discrete analogues in Burning Wheel (but they have different mechanical effects). “Intimacies” and “Mentors” can be accounted for with relationships (see below); and everything from “Henchmen” and “Backing”, to “Cults” and “Familiars” can effectively be bought with rps as affiliations reputations or gear in Burning Wheel using the pre-existing rules. “Connections” is basically just Circles, and “Resources” is, of course, Resources. Some of the unique backgrounds, like “Arsenal”, “Salary” and “Taboo” are harder to account for. Keep an eye out in the exalted traits for options such as these. For example, “Heart’s Blood” is built into the core mechanics of the Lunars, and “Breeding” is encapsulated as a set of traits determined by the amount of lifepaths you had when you exalted as a Dragon-Blood. Relationships If you would like a relationship to be an Essence or Gossamer wielder, then add +5 rps to the relationship cost. Mentors Mentors do not necessarily cost any extra rps (but most will because they are essence wielders), simply declare that a particular relationship is your mentor, and decide what their speciality is. Having a mentor allows you to open and advance a supernatural martial art, but they can help you in-game too: Mentors may either give instruction for skills, or they may help you learn new spells (with Illuminations). Their presence will also reduce the training time of appropriate stats and skills by one-quarter. That is, they either reduce the number of training hours per-day by one-quarter (rounded to the nearest hour), or the number of training months by one-quarter (rounded to the nearest day). Gear Exalts use the prices for all Mannish gear on BWG pg 202, except for guns: Gunpowder (known as ‘firedust’) comes from the South, and is quite rare and partially magical in nature; so the base cost of guns is increased by +5 rps, and buying them in-game incurs a +1 Ob penalty (or +10 rps and +2 Ob if you are not in, or from, the South). * Officially, the guns in Exalted are more like micro-flame-throwers, rather than hand cannons and rifles. Appropriately they’re known as ‘flame-pieces’ and ‘fire-wands’. If you want to implement this idea, you’ll have to figure it out yourself. I prefer my guns to be shooty bang-bang! Magical Artefacts You can use the Enchanting rules to make artefacts. But be careful. They're powerful tools. Animal Companions For 3 rps you can buy a simple mundane pet (BWG pg 204), which is mostly just for show. For 12 rps you can buy a large or effective pet (like a hunting dog/ wolf); it may even double as a mount (such as a giant riding bird/ lizard, or a camel). Choose a singular mundane skill that it can help you with. You may buy the Spirit Familiar trait (BWC pg 528) for 30 rps. This takes the form of a small spirit-blooded animal or elemental sprite. If you have the Spirit Familiar trait and also ''spend 30 rps then you may burn up a large or effective Spirit Familiar, at the discretion of the GM. The role of such a familiar will then become more like that of a bodyguard. ix. Resources and Circles Circling Exalts Circling up exalts works the same as any other circles roll, see BWG pg 380. Use the disposition modifiers to find exalts of your type. Exaltation is technically it’s own setting, so when circling up exalts of a different type—which is not always possible, depending on your location—combine the specific disposition and the uncommon or specific occupation modifiers. Also don’t forget the setting location modifiers. Exchange Rates Buying goods and services, or generating cash or funds in a region that uses a different currency to you is done at +1 Ob. If you are in Heaven, the Underworld, or Hell (and not a native) then increase this to +2 Ob. Appropriate money managing skills can be used in a linked test to aid with this. This is explained in more detail in the Panoply section. x. PTGS No changes here, except that the physical tolerances grayscale can be artificially improved with traits like Tough (BWG pg 351) and Ox-Body (I-V) (see the Traits List). xi. Beliefs and Instincts Solars, Sidereals and Dragon-bloods have a special trait that means if their first belief is appropriately written, then they will almost always get a deeds point for completing it. See the Exalted Lifepaths for more details. It is recommended that these sorts of beliefs are written as two-parters (or even three-parters); with a larger primary statement or goal, followed by a smaller secondary or tertiary task-at-hand. As per usual, you earn fate for working towards the belief in general, and you earn persona for completing the tasks along the way, but the main goal will almost always grant a deeds point. It is the GM’s job to make this primary goal appropriately difficult to accomplish—and hence deeds-worthy—so that there are always some world-changing consequences (or at least region-changing consequences) tied into it’s completion. * This is like saying, ''“For better or worse, your actions here will have repercussions that are currently beyond your foresight.” If the GM can’t think of anything, he should inform the player that currently their first belief will not grant a deeds point—but that could change if they are tenacious enough. Else they should change it if they want to angle for the deeds point. xii. Name Certain cultures in Exalted have certain naming conventions. Check your character’s origin and try to read up on any naming conventions (or just make them up). The dynasts of the Realm use a more oriental naming convention: Name First Name (if any) Second Name Last (like “Sesus Kejak Somon”, or “Nellens Denati”); while many people in the Scavenger lands just go by a given name, moniker, or sobriquet (like “Stranger”, “Jet”, or “Dao”); others may just be named after animals, objects, or concepts combined to sound esoteric or worldly (like “Harmonious Jade”, “Whispering Mongoose Softly Laughing”, “Seven Devils Clever”, or “Argent Flame of Heaven”). The names of many exalts and gods can be incredibly florid. I once had a river god called “Glorious Procession of Meandering Splendour Engulfed in Sublime Eminence”, for example. Here are some Exalted name generators that I like: * A dynastic name generator * A quasi-historical name generator * A general exalted name generator * An advanced name generator (also useful for naming charms and martial arts)